Doko Roko Kickstarter Offers Big Swords, Stone Golems

Oh no! I clicked on one of the dozens of Kickstarter emails I receive each day and I liked what I saw! That’s not how this is supposed to work. Alice, Alice! What do I do? Help! Alice…

Breathe. It’s OK. Let’s imagine that there’s not a flood. Let’s imagine that we’re thirsty. Doko Roko [Kickstarter campaign] is an attractive action platformer about climbing a tower, fighting demons with a large sword, and piecing together a story inspired by the structure of Dark Souls.

Although structurally similar to Dark Souls, in the sense that Doko Roko’s story will be seeded in its environment rather than delivered via “long-winded monologue”, the style is one defined by gently spinning windmills, moss-covered stone golems and magical fireflies. It also appears to have a cast of odd-looking but friendly creatures to chat to. I suspect I would be less enamored with all this if I hadn’t re-watched Howl’s Moving Castle last week and spent the intervening time thinking about how much I liked its world.

I’d definitely be less enamored by it if it didn’t look like the combat was pretty tight, too. You wield an array of swords as you climb higher up the large tower in which the game takes place, and each sword seems to be about six times larger than the character you’re controlling. There’s GIFs of it in action through on the Kickstarter page, or you could watch this video:

If you want in on that action, the lowest pledge tier of $10 (£6.46) will get you a DRM-free copy of the game, and $25 (£16.16) will get you early beta access. Both have an estimated delivery date of October 2017, which is a long way away, but likely more honest than most Kickstarter dates. The game has currently received $8,206 of its $30,000 goal with 28 days to go.